Growth corridors have been a classic instrument of realizing visions of economic development for decades, but have reached new attention in Sub-Saharan policies in recent years. They are seen as catalysts of regional economic integration and innovation by policy makers and private businesses, and pointedly pushing traditional businesses into increasingly complex global production networks. However, the outcomes of such development initiatives are still barely understood. Development policies are often based on simplified models and projections, which are not able to address sufficiently the complexity of regional development and the risks derived from them (Mold, 2012; Lambin et al., 2001). Critics argue that corridor policies which foster global production network integration can lead to conflicts, external dependencies, a polarization of wealth, and further problematic socio-economic effects (Hall et al., 2015). Against this general background, the overall research question of this study is: In how far does the political development of globally integrated growth corridors lead to desired and undesired regional socio-economic effects? The study concentrates on the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) as an example of a national public driven top-down initiative which follows a clear global production network integration strategy.